In the morning, my grandmother went to the church she was married in, for the sunday service. I wasn't interested in the service but I was interested in seeing the church. So my mum and I did a bit of shopping before we went to the church. Once the service had finished, we met my grandmother and aunt and uncle outside, along with some more family which I don't really know :) There was another Elmer who I'm related to in some way (but it's too complicated for me to remember), and another lady who was a childhood friend of my grandmother's.

After that, we did some shopping so that we'd have a bit of food for the next few days. Once we had the shopping all done, we headed down to the Isle of Whithorn, which is a lovely little town on the coast. We met my mum's cousin (or second cousin, I can't keep track of all these relations) quite by accident there. He and his son had just come in from the sea where they'd been out to collect their lobster pots (they'd cught three, but they were only just big enough to be keepers). We arranged with them to meet up for dinner later on in the week, though we're not quite sure which day it'll be just yet.

After talking with them for a little bit, we went for a wander up the road to see St. Ninien's Church, which is a tiny little church, which has no roof anymore (you don't pay taxes on castles and buildings with no roof, so you see lots of old castles where they've simply removed the roof and left the rest standing). Apparently, the church was famous for being a place where pilgrim's from Ireland and the Isle of Man would land on their way to the continent of England. From the point at the Isle of Whithorn, you could see three kingdoms: Ireland, Scotland, England and the Isle of Man (well, they were all kingdoms back in those days) and the fifth kingdom you could see by looking up: the kingdom of Heaven!

We stayed up pretty late tonight playing cards and generally having a good time.

We left Edinburgh today, it was quite a drive from there to Newton Stewart, where my grandmother grew up. Before we went to Newton Stewart, though, we had to visit some of my relatives in Dollar, which is just north of Edinburgh. Before Dollar, however, we stopped over in a small town called Linlithgow, between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The castle at Linlithgow is where Mary Queen of Scots was born. It's also where my grandfather used to tell us our family has it's roots. We were never really sure if he was just pulling our leg, though, because I remember he used to tell us our family came to England with the Vikings (though whether as a warrior or a slave, I never knew)...

Anyway, there must've been some truth to the Linlithgow story, because there is still today a "Balderston Farm" there (Balderston was my mother's maiden name), though we never actually got to see it, being pressed for time as we were. We did see the Linlithgow castle, though, and it looked quite homely. You can see us all stand out the front of it in this picture.

After Linlithgow, my relatives in Dollar took us out to a hotel for lunch (there were too many of us to fit in their house). You can see us all in this photo. OK, now running from left to right, we have myself, my uncle Fraser, my aunt Irene, my cousin Steven. Over on the right, from near to far we have Elmer, who (let's see if I get this right) is my mother's father's cousin's daughter ("Well, what does that make us?" "Absolutely nothing!" -- Spaceballs). Next to her is Mary - she's the wife of the man second from the end. Next to her is my grandmother, then Jack, who I believe is similarly related to me as Elmer is (i.e. distantly!), and next to him is Grant, who is Elmer's husband.

After lunch, was a veeeeery long drive to Newton Stewart, and our little cottage, Brownhill Cottage. We didn't leave Grant and Elmer's house until 4:30 or so, and we arrive at Brownhill Cottage when it was pitch black (stupid me offered to drive that leg, but unbeknownst to me was it that it was a 3½ hour drive!)

Once we arrived, we pretty much unpacked our stuff, and went to sleep!

My cousins woke up just after midnight this morning! Talk about crazy jet lag... I woke up at a more reasonable time, though, and met them downstairs for breakfast. I tried a piece of their haggis (which tasted rather disturbingly like sausage (or maybe sausages taste disturbingly like haggis)). Black pudding is OK, but like the haggis, I don't think I'd make a habit of eating it.

We visited Edinburgh Castle today. This is where they keep the Scottish crown jewels. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos of the jewels (and there's a guard watching them all the time, so you can even sneak a picture!), so I don't have any pictures of the actual jewels, but I got plenty of pictures of the view around the castle. It's actually pretty spectacular. It sits on top of this enormous hill, right in the middle of Edinburgh.

We were at the castle for pretty much the whole day, because there's just so much of it to see. They have a museum on Scottish warfare, and on all the wars and things the Scots have fought in. There's about 3 dozen souvenier shops (though they all sell pretty much the same thing) and of course, the actual crown jewels. Along with the crown jewels, they also have the Stone of Destiny, which until 1996 had been kept in Westminster Abbey, and is what the monarch has sat on while being crowned for something like 600 years. To me, it just looks like on piece of sandstone with some iron rings in it. But still, it's impressive the age of it.

We also happened to be there while a wedding was in progress. The bride turned up half an hour late, and even when she got there, there was some discussion, I believe, on how she was going to walk down the cobble stones in her high heels, but eventually she got out of the car. I wasn't so impressed with all of that, though, as I was with her car. It was easily the longest stretch limo I've ever seen! Though a horrible shade of purple (which matched the bride maid's dresses, of course).

We had dinner in our favourite little restaurant again. Yum!

I got to the internet café today. Spent some time looking through emails and uploading the photos I had so far, etc.

My cousins arrived today. They got to Edinburgh around 11am, and we took them down Prince's Street, which is where all the shops and stuff are in Edinburgh. I got a couple of souveniers for people, but we didn't spend a whole lot of time there - after all, it's just shops :)

We had lunch at this little restaurant called "Backstage Bistro", just behind King's Theatre. If anyone's in Edinburgh, I highly recommend it. The couple who run it are charming and the food is amazing.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. My cousins were all in bed by around 4 o'clock, still quite jet-lagged (I know what that's like!) so I spent the rest of the day in my room, just relaxing.

Nothing much to teport today. After another delicious breakfast at our B&B, we set off around 10am. It was quite a long drive to Edinburgh, and we didn't get here until 2:30pm. After checking in to our guest house (lord help me, I'm in the same room as my mum & grandmother!) we had a late lunch at a nice little shop. Then I went for a walk with my mum around town a little. She checked her email at an internet café, but I think I'll wait until tomottow morning when I'm by myself to check mine. I was hoping to get the morning to myself tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I love my mum, but after a week together 24 hours a day, I need some time by myself :)